New Walgreens To Open In Creve Coeur May 13

Store Manager Kevin Block has been at the 11015 Olive Blvd. store for just over six and a half years, and lately, he's been getting one question. A lot. When will the new store under construction, open across the street. "What's the date? What's the date?" Now we know: Friday, May 13.

"The last few days leading up, we’ll slowly start taking merchandise across the street to the new store," Block said. On the 12th this store will close at 5 p.m. and we will reopen at 7am across the street. It will be Block's second time overseeing a store transfer, as he previously did for the chain's store in Des Peres. While the exterior has been finished for a while, crews are just now starting to move store fixtures into place this week and next.

A team of 20-30 people will be involved with transferring items to the new location in the time between one store closes and the other one opens. Block said the biggest obstacle in announcing an opening day had been the weather, as crews needed a week without rain to pour the parking lot. Fortunately, that happened before the recent dose of severe weather and rain, which at times has felt never-ending.

A grand opening will be scheduled for May 13, while the city is tentatively planning a ribbon cutting on the intersection of Olive Blvd. and Graeser Rd., which was part of the Walgreens project, on May 21. The new light at the reconfigured intersection has been operational since last month.

Even Keel

City leaders have been enthusiastic about the Walgreens project as it has neared completion, but the opening comes at the same time the city has seen retail outlets, including Blockbuster Video and , close their Creve Coeur locations. has announced it will close next month and open a smaller shop in a new Creve Coeur storefront. On the corporate side, pending acquisition by a Georgia firm is expected to result in the loss of the company's corporate headquarters in CityPlace.

Thursday, members of Creve Coeur's Economic Development Commission heard the concerns of Mel Klearman, a city resident who is worried about empty retail space in the area as far as the impact on sales tax revenue. But in an interview with Creve Coeur Patch this week, City Administrator Mark Perkins said sales tax receipts are trending upward compared to last year.

"Every time we lose a business, certainly that has a potential to impact us, we’ll have to wait and see what backfills in those places. It may not be as good. It may be better," Perkins said, while adding that the city wasn't reliant on big box retail or a mall for revenue. "We can’t get overly concerned about indiviual businesses that might be closing cyclically just like we don’t get too excited when we see new business come in either because it seems like as soon as one one new one opens, somebody else is heading in another direction."

Commission members heard from Doug Rasmussen with the St. Louis Economic Development Council, who said that Creve Coeur was "well-positioned" when it comes to the long term, especially when compared to neighboring communities struggling to find new uses for old space, like the Jamestown Mall.

Rasmussen said "we tend to get down on ourselves" when it comes to bemoaning the loss of corporate headquarters in the area, but said it was important to think of companies like Panera, which started in the St. Louis area and have grown. He also said he was hopeful that Smurfit-Stone might retain a Creve Coeur presence in some form. The sale to Georgia-based RockTenn is tentatively scheduled to close during the second quarter of 2011.